Category Archives: Olympic Truce

Film premiere | #LondonIsOpen Places of Worship | 21 September

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londonisopen-21-septLBFN’s peace & reconciliation strand includes convening the London Peace Network, which marks the UN International Day of Peace each year.

Join film-makers, artists, religious leaders and LBFN friends from across the capital on Wednesday 21 September at 8am-9am at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square for the premiere of a short film celebrating London’s places of worship – we are open and welcoming, not closed and fearful. Download the flyer.

The film is inspired by the Mayor of London’s #LondonIsOpen series and will be shown at Southwark Cathedral later in the year in the presence of the Mayor.  Churches, Islamic centres, temples, synagogues, meeting houses and gurdwaras will be open to guests during their times of worship or meeting on 23, 24 and 25 September – contact LBFN for details.

To secure your place, please register on the Eventbrite page.

All you need for peace weekend 20-22 September

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peace_leaflet_church_webI hope everyone has received information about this weekend’s activities marking the UN International Day of Peace.

In case a link is easier for spreading the word, here are the three flyers:

For Islamic centres (Friday 20th)

For synagogues (Saturday 21st)

For churches (Sunday 22nd)

We’ll also be embarking on Flights for Peace on the afternoon of Sunday 22nd September at 2-3pm.

We’ll ‘fly’ from Greenwich to Newham on the Emirates Air Line (cable car) in gondolas which have been reserved for us by TfL.

If you’d like to join in, please let LBFN know.  Young people and accompanied children will be taking part and are very welcome.

We are delighted that so many organisations have offered their support: Christian Muslim Forum, Faith-based Regeneration Network, Muslim Council of Britain, Faiths Forum for London, Churches Together in England, Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, The Cordoba Foundation and many more.

It’s a very simple idea.

We invite in visitors (from different traditions from our own) and exchange messages of peace.

Messages from nine religious traditions are printed on each leaflet.

If you would like an invitation to an Islamic centre, a synagogue (which will probably be in the sukkah) or a church, please get in touch with your local faith forum, or with LBFN, and we will arrange it.  Schools are getting involved, too.  You will be one of millions marking the UN International Day of Peace.

Take a photograph of your event, big or small, and send it in – we like to share good news!

The Facebook page for this weekend is very popular and has all the latest news, photos and updates https://www.facebook.com/sept21.  The twitter name is @network_peace.

UK-Pakistan gathering tomorrow afternoon

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For everyone coming to LBFN’s UK-Pakistan Minority-Majority event tomorrow afternoon in Balham, SW12, here is the programme.  We have made extra space so that more people can participate, so if you haven’t registered yet, please do so at http://minority-majority.eventbrite.com.

Our keynote speaker is Rt Hon Justine Greening MP, Secretary of State for International Development and we will also be hearing from the Bishop of Lahore, Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP, Humera Khan (An-Nisa Society) and Anwar Akhtar (The Samosa).

Look forward to seeing you there.

UK_PK programme pic

Invitation | UK-Pakistan Minority-Majority gathering

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Min-Maj invitation picPlease join us at our last Olympic Truce event – a wonderful gathering of people who are interested in the future of Pakistan and of this country and how we can work well together.

Tuesday 12th March, 3-8pm (with supper)

Memon Centre, 13 Weir Road, Balham, SW12 0LT

Download the invitation and sign up (limited places, so please register soon).  Pass the invitation on to those with links to Pakistan.  Look forward to seeing you there.

Olympic Truce minority-majority project

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mmproject picLBFN has been part of the Foreign Office’s Olympic Truce Stakeholders’ Group since 2011 and many of us met the FCO’s Conrad Bailey at the various London 2012 events last year.

We are delighted that one of our “twinned” projects is starting this week in Pakistan, supported by the FCO.  It looks at the close ties over centuries between this country and Pakistan and at the experience of the Pakistan diaspora.  What can government, civil society and religious organisations do together to enable greater awareness of minority-majority issues in both countries?  How can we work together in practical and positive ways?

More details are on the London Peace Network site.

Round-up of London Peace Network news

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As the weather cools and memories of our Olympic summer fade, have a look at the London Peace Network blog for the latest news and pictures of Olympic Truce events.

UN International Day of Peace, Tooting Islamic Centre, and prayers for peace

South London Inter Faith Group Walks in the City/Southwark and Merton

Imperial War Museum and an earlier visit

Open Iftar meals in Waltham Forest, Lambeth & Harrow

2012 Hours Against Hate

 

Near Neighbours Olympic Torch pledge

St Ethelburga’s This is Not a Plate

Ramadan Festival’s Dine @ Mine

 

Ringing bells for the Olympic Truce – and meeting Ban Ki-moon

War and Peace Festival at St John’s Waterloo

If you have any pictures or news you’d like added, please send them in.

So many of us have been involved in extra peace-making and trust-building activities during 2012.  We’ll be listening to some of these stories at our next meeting.  Please let me know if you’d like to share yours.

 

BATCA peace ceremony at Tooting Broadway

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Peace Ceremony on Monday 24th September 6-7pm at Tooting Broadway tube station.

BATCA Multi-Faith Peace Ceremony

6-7pm on Monday 24th September

Tooting Broadway Tube Station

Please join BATCA’s sixth Multi-Faith Peace Ceremony to be held from 6-7pm on Monday 24th September outside Tooting Broadway tube station.

This is an occasion that celebrates the richness of our community and its faith traditions. Leaders from the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh faiths have been invited to say brief prayers for peace. We have asked our Mayor and MP, and other local leaders, to come and say a few words.

Members of the public will be invited to light candles, creating a glow in the falling light, and if they wish, express their own thoughts or prayers for peace.

Please support this moving occasion, and forward the flyer widely.

For more information, please contact:

Revd Dr Andrew Davey   ap.davey@btinternet.com

or Kate Allan   allanraallan@aol.com   020 8870 1550

Invitation to Houses of Parliament for mini-launch

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All London Boroughs Faiths Network members and friends are warmly invited to the Houses of Parliament for a short but special event tomorrow morning (Friday) at 11.30am.

Local mosques and Islamic centres across London will be opening their doors and welcoming in visitors on UN International Day of Peace.  This is a London Peace Network intiative for local Islamic centres, which has brought the main Muslim organisations together in support, and which LBFN has been co-ordinating.

Lord Bates, the champion of the Olympic Truce, has kindly invited us to launch our activities at Westminster Hall at the Houses of Parliament on Friday 21 September at 11.30am.

We will also be launching The Cordoba Foundation’s Occasional Papers, Sustainable Peace for a Sustainable Future, which includes contributions on the subject of peace and on the International Day of Peace from the Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Hertzegovina and the Archbishop of Canterbury.  Copies will be available for everyone to take away.

Please download the invitation here.

It will be more of a mini-launch, since people will need to leave at 12.15pm for the huge range of activities planned at Islamic centres and mosques across the capital during and after Friday Prayers.

You will find a list of participating Islamic centres on the London Peace Network blog.

Please join us!  Let me know and I will add your name to the guest list.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Join in the International Day of Peace | Friday 21 September

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Make a difference this year – join together to mark the International Day of Peace on 21st September!

The London Peace Network, co-ordinated by LBFN, has been working on something special.   Download the flyer here.

The UN’s International Day of Peace, which is marked each year on 21 September, falls on a Friday this year.

Local Islamic centres across the UK and overseas will be coming together as usual for Friday Prayers (Salaatul-Jamu’a).  This year, they will also be leading their local communities in marking the International Day of Peace.

They are inviting visitors to join them during or after Friday Prayers to exchange messages of peace, to celebrate local peace-building activities and to enjoy the hospitality offered.

Local schools, churches, synagogues, temples, gurdwaras and community organisations are invited to observe the day by accepting these invitations.

Some Islamic centres in the UK are pairing up with a nearby church, religious community or school and linking their observance of the International Day of Peace to similar pairs overseas.  The growing list includes centres in:

Bosnia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Nigeria, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, India, USA, Iraq, Ghana and Lebanon.

The following Muslim leaders invite you to take part in marking the International Day of Peace this year:

Yousif Al-Khoei OBE, Al-Khoei Islamic CentreDilowar Khan, East London Mosque and London Muslim CentreProfessor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Organisation of Islamic CooperationDr Mustafa Cerić, Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina

Maulana Sarfraz Madni, Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board
Farooq Murad, Muslim Council of Britain
Sayed Ali Abbas Razawi, Majlis-e-Ulama Europe
Anas Altikriti, The Cordoba Foundation

Dr Ahnad Al-Dubayan, The London Central Mosque and the Islamic Cultural Centre

You will find messages of peace from nine of the world religions on the flyer. Peace One Day, which works each year for a Global Truce, will be live-streaming some of the activities during the day and featuring them at their Peace Concert that evening.

If you would like to participate – by inviting visitors to your local Islamic centre or by receiving an invitation to visit – please get in touch.  All participants will be acknowledged and we’ll be celebrating all the activities later in the year.

Bells on the Millennium Bridge

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A short film is now posted on the London Peace Network of our All The Bells ringing for the Olympic Truce and Millennium Development Goals yesterday.

The sound of all the different bells is beautiful.

Many thanks to all of you who came along – the Evening Standard reported 150 of us!

One of the bells we rang (from the Shree Ghanapathy Temple) was given to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon later that day – there are pictures at the end of the film.  Thank you Geetha and Sai Ganesh (see left).

Please continue sending in your local upcoming events and, in particular, news of peace-making and trust-building activities during the Games.  There’s lots on!